Provident Financial Services, Inc

Good morning and welcome to the Provident Financial Services, Inc. Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Leonard Gleason, Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Carrie. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us for our second quarter earnings call. Today's presenters are Chris Martin, Chairman, President, and CEO, and Tom Lyons, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before beginning the review of our financial results, we ask that you please take note of our standard cautions as to any forward-looking statements that may be made during the course of today's call. Our full disclaimer is contained in this morning's earnings release, which has been posted to the investor relations page on our website, provident.bank. I'm pleased to introduce Chris Martin, who will offer his perspective on our second quarter. Chris?

Thanks, Len, and good morning, everyone. As we begin the summary of our second quarter, it is our sincere hope that you and yours are safe and healthy. Second quarter earnings were impacted by COVID and CECL as the provision for low losses and expenditures related to providing a safe environment for our customers' employees took priority as we phased our staff back to office process and afforded our customers full branch access. On a positive yet related note, we had expenses for the planned acquisition of SB1 of $683,000 during the quarter and looked to complete the closing tomorrow. We remain comfortable with our capital structure and balance sheet strength. Our capital ratios continue to be strong given our business mix and risk management processes. In view of our capital and pre-tax pre-provision earnings expectations, the Board approved a $0.23 cash dividend. Net income for the quarter was $14.3 million, or $0.22 per share. Net interest margin decreased 23 basis points linked quarter to 2.97% as the impact of lower rates and higher cash balances was partially offset by lower deposit costs and above average growth in non-interest bearing deposits.